Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy today called for massive anti-war protests to greet President George Bush on his trip to Britain.

Mr Kennedy said the more people who took to the streets the better. Although it would be "inappropriate" for him to attend personally, he said Liberal Democrat MPs would certainly be free to protest.

"I think we should use the opportunity to leave the president in no doubt as to the extent of public concern, not just in our own country, but in Europe generally about the way in which events, tragically, have unfolded," he told BBC radio.

The Stop the War Coalition has estimated that more than 100,000 people could attend a protest in London on Thursday. Organisers are in talks with police to try to end a deadlock over the route of the march. They are demanding the protest should be allowed to go down Whitehall and close to the Houses of Parliament.

Mr Kennedy also voiced concern about indications that the US could seek an early exit from Iraq, leaving 'chaos' behind.

Today, Mr Bush acknowledged the huge price families of servicemen have paid, but did not back down on his decision.

But Reg Keys, father of Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, who died in Iraq, said the US president was just using "propaganda words".

"He's trying to say that they died for a noble cause, but in my opinion soldiers in the First World War and the Second World War died for a noble cause because they were trying to repel a country that was invading our shores," he told GMTV. "What threat was Iraq to us? I feel deceived."